(S06E05) How do you top a nuclear bomb blast -- complete with a mushroom cloud hovering over Los Angeles -- which killed an estimated 12,000 people instantly? Plus, throw in the threat of four more nuclear bombs still in the hands of a terrorist, somewhere in America?

You don't.

Instead, you go for some familial intrigue, some character development, yet another creepy love triangle and ramp up the irritating behavior of the president's sister.

If you have DVRed or TiVoed the latest episode of 24 and do not want to know what transpired during hour five, please do not click on the link as spoilers follow . . .

So, where to start? How about with Jack Bauer's clearly twisted and dysfunctional family? With the fact that Jack apparently had some "thing" with his sister-in-law, that he has a sketchy father with whom he hasn't spoken in nine years and a creepy brother who wanted him killed last season?

Patience my friends.

First, we start with a recap of the episode which started with some wooden acting as CTUers were trying to come to terms with the fact that a nuke had just been detonated and that friends and colleagues had been killed. Chloe O'Brian and lecherous ex Morris bantered as Chloe lamented, "Why do people I know keep dying?" (*News flash: Because you work in the anti-terrorism business, Chloe.*)

Speaking of terrorism . . . we learned that the "bad" terrorist who'd been behind the 11 weeks of attacks on American soil -- Abu Fayed -- safely got away from the suitcase nuke that went off at the end of the last episode and was carting around other bombs in a van. (Does he have all four?) Desperately seeking someone who knew how to re-configure the detonators on those suckers, Fayed contacted some British-accented man who agreed to help him out.

In the meantime, the "good" terrorist, Hamri Al-Assad, was escorted into the CTU HQ as Chloe clenched her fists and gave him the death stare. (I kept waiting for her to run at Assad, yell "This is for Curtis!" and stun him with a Taser.) Assad informed CTU chief Bill Buchanan that a year ago he'd dispatched Fayed to negotiate with a former Soviet general to obtain the nuclear weapons. When Chloe and Morris checked into who had contact with the general, Jack's father, Phillip Bauer's name popped up.

Thus began our descent into family weirdness. Jack -- who, after the nuke went off decided he was compelled to answer his nation's call to duty -- told Bill he was back in the anti-terror game and that he would find out where his dad was. He telephoned his father's palatial estate only to have Sam (His dad's friend? Butler? Assistant? Pool boy?) tell him that Phillip had left the previous day under mysterious circumstances, leaving his cell phone behind. When the call ended, we saw a guy named "Liddy" (Did I hear that correctly? Liddy?), who observed the exchange via surveillance equipment, call another man to report that Jack was looking for his father.

Who did he call? Jack's brother Graham, the bad seed who, after being apprised of Jack and Sam's conversation told Liddy, "We should've killed Jack when we had the chance."

Whoa! I recognized this guy from a previous episode, but couldn't pinpoint him. During a commercial break, I quickly scanned through the IMDB and 24 web sites to learn that he was the man with the headset glued to his ear during season five who ordered weasel-like President Logan to have Jack killed after Jack obtained tape-recorded evidence that Logan was a crook.

Before Jack made an impromptu brotherly visit, Graham and his wife Marilyn got into a spat when Graham told her that Jack was back from China. I found the couple's conversation odd, including the comment Graham made to his wife," You weren't over Jack when we got married."

Jack arrived and, after exchanging uncomfortable looks with Marilyn, growled that he had to speak with Graham. As Graham nervously spoke a mile-a-minute, Jack popped him in the head, knocking him out. Jack locked the doors and grabbed some electrical cord from a nearby lamp with which he bound his brother to a chair. And, for those of you who were concerned that Jack was going to go all post-Chinese-torture-prison wimpy on us, he threatened to rip Graham's tongue out. Then he put a plastic bag over Graham's head and started to suffocate him. Nothing says family reunion like asphyxiation.

The award for the most annoying character this week (last week's winner was Morris), goes to President Palmer II's sister Sandra. Her temper tantrums while watching a surveillance feed of her boyfriend trying to infiltrate a suspected terror cell in a Washington, D.C. detention facility were truly obnoxious, as is her constant refrain to everyone who will listen that she's the president's sister.

Your reactions? Theories? Is this how President Logan will be worked back into the story?